Technology continues to dominate supply chains: artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), robotics and control towers are seeing rapidly increasing adoption for enhanced, realtime visibility, predictive analytics, customer satisfaction and more.
This is according to the JDA & EFT 2019 Global Logistics Report, released by JDA Software in tandem with eyefortransport (EFT).
The new survey reveals that competition for labour among third-party logistics (3PL) providers and retailers is unprecedented: 72% of respondents in logistics and 66% in retail, manufacturers and distributors indicated that they have suffered labor-related disruptions to their operations in the past 24 months.
In all sectors, the overwhelming response to mitigate this risk is through training and adoption of technology.
“The labour shortage is especially challenging in the trucking industry because of the lack of drivers and alternate infrastructure,” says ElMarie Hugo, senior director: industry strategy at JDA. “We expect to see an acceleration in the speed of adoption of AI and autonomous vehicles.
“Companies are already placing their orders for autonomous vehicles, which has in turn sparked competition among the manufacturers, like Tesla, OTTO and Mercedes-Benz, who are all raising the stakes in this ‘futuristic reality’.”
As supply chains become increasingly global and complex, all three groups surveyed are turning to data sharing collaboration to increase visibility. Most respondents, including 88% of logistics providers, 87% of retailers, manufacturers and distributors and 74% of technology providers, identified visibility as the biggest reason for such collaboration.
“It is no longer enough to be reactive to events that disrupt supply chains,” says Nicholas Stylianou, project director at eft. “New tools, leveraging the power of AI and ML can now predict disruptive events as far as four plus weeks into the future. Players who fail to adopt this technology will find themselves trapped in a data ice age as customers seek out partners with superior predictive capabilities embedded in their solution platforms.”